"The Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) is an initiative under the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific for trade expansion through exchange of tariff concessions among developing country members of the Asia-Pacific region," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters here.
"Many of the sectors where we benefit are of critical value to us. Particularly, China and Korea have offered textiles, chemicals, pharma, heavy engineering machine tools, gems and jewelery, iron and steel, agri and marine products for us."
Sitharaman said this decision was agreed upon by the APTA members after several rounds of talks. The third round was held some time in 2001 and since then, this has been going on.
On its part, India will give market access to the other members in sectors like railway locomotives, rolling stock, nuclear plants, fissile material, aircraft and spacecraft. These are the items which are procured only by government agencies in India.
Also Read
"After prolonged and protracted negotiations, we have reached this... It has now got to be agreed by other countries and ratified by them. Ministerial meeting is in January 2017, where this will go through," she added.
Asked about the impact of the proposed mega deal Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on this, she replied that RCEP is lot more ambitious.
Although Indian exporters will get access in Korean and Chinese markets at a concessional duty, these two already have overcapacity in iron and steel and chemicals.
The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the exchange of tariff concessions, on margin of a preference basis, under the fourth round of negotiations under APTA and related amendments.
Till date, three rounds of trade negotiations have taken
place.
Up to the third round, India offered tariff preferences on 570 tariff lines (or products) at an average margin of preference (MoP) of 23.9 per cent and an additional 48 tariff lines to least developed countries (LDC) at an average margin of preference of 39.7 per cent.
The Cabinet's approval was also given to amend the preamble of APTA to effect accession of Mongolia as the 7th participating state.
Other amendments to incorporate the sectoral rule of origin to the agreement were also approved.